For chemistry and physics teacher Emily Fitzgerald, the proverb applies a little differently: her “silver friend” is physics, a new addition to her repertoire of classes, and chemistry — as she is hardpressed to distinguish a favorite among these two “friends”, an old and gold subject.

“There are parts of both that I really enjoy. I think physics is really fun because you can do a lot of hands-on things and see it happening,” Fitzgerald said. “Whereas [with]chemistry, it’s really interesting to make models that can interpret what’s happening on a tiny, tiny level.”

The retirement of physics teacher Mike McCrystal encouraged Fitzgerald to request a section of physics from the administration as she readied herself for a second year at MVHS. Her fellow staff members had assured her the first year of teaching is always the hardest, but Fitzgerald’s case is an exception. Fitzgerald had taught six classes of chemistry her first year, but is now assigned four classes of chemistry and an addition of two physics classes. Double the subjects equates to double the work, as Fitzgerald phrases it, despite both subjects qualifying as a “science” and requiring similar skills of experimentation or making hypotheses.

“I think [physics is]a very intuitive subject so you can actually observe physics happening [if you]drop a ball and see it fall down,” Fitzgerald said. “But with chemistry, it’s not quite as intuitive, so I have to come up with ways for my students to see what’s happening even though they can’t see it in person.”

Before she even became a full-fledged teacher on the West Coast, Fitzgerald was all the way across the country in New Jersey, earning teaching credentials in both chemistry and physics. The former she earned in a rather unprecedented way: Fitzgerald was under the impression that her teaching credential program focused on chemistry, until she realized that physics constituted the bulk of material. She was quick to sign up for an additional, chemistry-centered course. Regardless of the past confusion it evoked, she is very grateful for the mishap, as it has rewarded her with valuable insight and experience in teaching two subjects.

There’s one slight change, however, Fitzgerald can’t quite adjust to.

“I’m still learning how to be [at]the D building which is always on the back of the school,” Fitzgerald said, “and the E building which is in the front of the school.”

Dawn to dusk, notifications and YouTube videos surge in a bellowing, merciless wave, flooding our eyes and ears with an onslaught of vibrant colors and noises. We retire to bed, lulled to slumber by the natural darkness of the night, only to be jolted awake by the artificial daylight of the computer monitor. The cycle continues, the soundtrack of our lives forever the repetitive ding of an incoming text and summer afternoons squandered away on social media sites.

Yet even as we spend every waking minute online, the majority of us never truly scratch the surface of the web. There lies a kind of technological underground unlike your typical Google Chrome or Firefox browser and shielded from the public eye: the deep web, and its shadier counterpart — the dark web.

According to junior Naomi Tai, a technology enthusiast, the deep web is unable to be accessed by regular search engines like Yahoo or Google.

“Most of [the deep web] is actually just data and a couple of them are websites that you have to use different browsers like TOR [if you want] to access them,” Tai said. “And it’s usually a bunch of shady business and whatnot.”

TOR (The Onion Router) refers to the onion router which is used to mask Internet traffic under blankets of encryption and uses its own form of an Internet Protocol (IP) address by using a .onion URL. But downloading TOR won’t make someone’s life easier by giving them specific sites; it is up to the user to find them on their own.

Unlike Tai, MVHS computer technician Brandon McArthur interprets the deep web as an infrastructure of the web and more organized than a storehouse for data.

“That means you can control who has access to your websites and your services,” McArthur said, “and so that can be good or bad.”

Graphic by Stuti Upadhyay.

Security is a constant priority, but there is a difference from sitting at home and using an electronic device than using an insecure network in a public space, like a coffee shop. Other people may be inclined to steal account information and assignments jeopardizing a job or a grade. But often most stores or school use a virtual private network (VPN) to create easy access

and provides security precautions like searching anonymously without being traced or keeping personal and personal information secure.

“Whenever you go to a website [VPN] encrypts it, sends it out over the router as encrypted, so nobody even knows what you’re doing,” AP Computer Science teacher David Greenstein said. “Whatever information you have and whatever comes back is totally encrypted because the only people who have the keys are you and the server that you’re paying way out there somewhere. So they call that tunneling, so that data tunneling essentially it’s a way of getting around systems.”

As a graduate student studying computer science, Greenstein was invited to work with the military on ARPANET (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), a kind of predecessor to the Internet we know now. The network was established in 1969 as a testbed for networking technologies between niversity and research centers (Britannica.com). ARPANET was exclusively for the military, and public use was prohibited, but Greenstein had the privilege of experiencing the technology firsthand when tasked with “file transfer protocol.” He sent files through a network of computers connecting to over thirty universities. The government eventually shifted ARPANET from a military project to a public project, and it gradually evolved into the Internet as we know it today.

In the 1990’s, however, the deep web made its humble, benign entrance.

“[Internet users] were starting to put some secure stuff [online] and they had this security program called PGP [Pretty Good Privacy] that you could download,” Greenstein said. “The [creator Phil Zimmermann] got sued by the military and they were going to [go] after every person that owned a copy.”

Nowadays, PGP is considered a vital email encryption program, but its implementation and possession in 1991 — a violation akin to owning a bomb — garnered three years of criminal inspection after the program spread worldwide (Phil Zimmerman). The U.S. Government considered the program an “armament” and infringement of the Arms Export Control Act, a law ceding the President authority to manage the import and export of possible defense articles or services (U.S. Department of State). However, the government ultimately dropped Zimmerman’s case in 1996, and the result of his efforts birthed today’s deep web, of which PGP is a component.

“It was so damaging to the security of the United States,” Greenstein said, “[for the public] to own something that they couldn’t break into.“

The term deep web has a negative connotation, but what many people do not realize is that we use it in our everyday lives. Only small parts of it are illegal, therefore people have justifiable means of using it. According to Greenstein, over ninety percent of it is harmless and a majority is essential in everyday life, thus there is no driving reason for the deep web to be rid of. Common uses include webmail, of which PGP plays a role in security, online banking and also video on demand.

“A lot of [the deep web] is data based driven, so when you hit a site like Amazon you’re hitting a deep web,” Greenstein said. “It’s going to generate the page automagically for you, so the page you see is not the page other people see.”

It is the dark web — the sinister story within the story — one should steer clear of. It is a breeding ground of immoral measure, flourishing with black markets and bidding sites for illegal weapons or substances. Tai expresses her unwillingness to access the dark web with a “Hell no!”

Junior Naomi Tai checks her email for notifications. Both email and everyday online applications use components of the deep web for security and privacy. Photo by Helen Chao.

“Since it’s this shady business sometimes they can try to track you down,” Tai said. “And do like, I dunno, kill you if you don’t do what they want you to do.”

According to Tai, one of her acquaintances has had some interaction with “bitcoins,” a feature also used on both the dark web and surface web.

In order to buy or sell things online, people use bitcoins, a form of digital currency where transactions can be made without central banks and no single authority has control over them. One bitcoin estimates to a value of 4,609 US dollars. Tai herself knows of someone who has traded bitcoins before on the surface web, a perfectly legal action as it is not inherently tied to the dark web.

Accessing the deep web itself is not illegal unless someone gets involved in criminal or illicit activity, which is primarily quarantined in the dark web.

“No, I have no reason to be [on the dark web],” Greenstein said. “It’s like saying I’m going to go to the worst place in town where they have people that get stabbed and people get shot and I’m going to walk down the street to see what it’s like.”

Some people may come back out alive, Greenstein acknowledges, but he himself certainly wouldn’t take the risk to find out for himself. The newspapers he’s perused report of dark web users ultimately facing criminal court instead of their computer screen.

Greenstein is adamant he will never be one of them.

“I don’t want of your readers to be [on the dark web], either,” Greenstein said. “That would be a really really bad thing so if there’s anything that I can stress in this whole thing it’s that it is dangerous – it really is.”

AP Computer Science teacher David Greenstein surfs the web on his laptop. Many people use the deep web in their daily lives without even noticing it. Photo by Helen Chao.

With their spindly legs and beady eyes, spiders aren’t creatures we would usually snuggle in bed with. Instead, the sight of a daddy longleg elicits a flight or fight reaction: does one utter a bloodcurdling shriek and flee the vicinity, or grab the flip flop to smash the creature into a pulpy spider pancake?

Of course, a kinder individual would simply acknowledge him or her with a nod and leave the spider on its merry way.

Below, a spider hater, junior Evelyn How, and a spider lover, junior Carl Rosenthal, each share their contrasting experiences and feelings about these eight-legged creepy crawlies.

View the photo gallery below of Rosenthal’s spiders. All photos used with permission by Carl Rosenthal.

As children, we have all swept a cautious glance around the house when home alone. As the skies outside darken to an inky black, we wait in tense anticipation for the yellow searchlights of our parents’ cars to sweep across the windows. Some of us refused to be tucked in bed, sure that death was awaited us in the form of a hairy ogre lurking in the depths of the closet. The spider in the shower was sure to be our death sentence and the swimming pool was as deep as the Pacific Ocean, chlorine water ready to envelope and swallow us whole.

For some of us, however, our “fear” isn’t simply being scared of the dark; it manifests itself as agoraphobia, arachnophobia or claustrophobia. In this timeline, we’ll look at the development of the word “phobia,” an anxiety disorder in which the afflicted has a serious and extreme fear of certain situations and objects.

Regardless of their passion for business, prospective DECA or FBLA members must take a CTE class(Career/Technical Education) to be eligible for club membership. Freshmen will typically take Principles of Business, an introductory course, and other students may take a Money and Banking or Java class, but there lingers still the underlying question of whether or not the class truly helps with the DECA or FBLA experience.Junior Urvi Shah is in her second year with FBLA, but is a one-year DECA club member who took Principles of Business freshmen year solely for eligibility in DECA. She believes this reason is applicable to most of her peers, as FBLA and DECA members amounted for almost all of the students in her Principles of Business class and she has noted similar patterns in her friend’s Money & Banking Class. There is a correlation between the class material and her DECA and FBLA activities, but she still considers the class requirement nonessential, citing its lack of significance or direct influence on her overall club experience. The class requirement may discourage prospective DECA and FBLA members who are exclusively interested in club participation.

Graphic by Helen Chao.

Akin to Shah, junior Brandon Ma also has experience with both FBLA and DECA organizations as a current DECA officer and second-year FBLA member. Ma, however, didn’t initially know of DECA or FBLA and simply signed up for Principles of Business out of personal interest. He believes the class requirement is logical and impactful, because it assisted him in both clubs — specifically on the DECA and FBLA multiple choice tests at conventions.

“A lot of [the test]is just memorizing a lot of content or concepts,” Ma said, “and that’s where Principles of Business is really helpful because it does give you an overview of like economics [and]an overview of how things work with the economy.”

He feels sympathetic for those unable to take a business class for whatever reason — resulting in ineligibility for DECA and FBLA — but ultimately believes the class requirement may be a “guard” against the lack of dedication he occasionally observes amongst the organization’s members. Some of the members are attracted to the social aspect of the conventions more so than the competitive essence of the club itself, opting to miss study or coaching sessions. Unfairly, extra time and resources for earnest and serious members are also potentially wasted.

“If people taking business classes right now aren’t very dedicated towards DECA [already]and that’s already like the very baseline requirement,” Ma said, “if we lower the requirement, there is going to be an even larger amount of people that [are]not trying to win [and]they’re just there for their friends.”

Business teacher Carl Schmidt, the advisor for both FBLA and DECA, stresses that the requirement cannot be disregarded regardless of student, parent or even administration complaints.

Funding is directly issued by the state government – uncoincidentally, they are also the originators and supervisors of the class requirement policy. If MVHS were to undermine the requirement, Schmidt believes it unfair to use the state money on the DECA or FBLA members who aren’t enrolled in his business classes, considering the money could be used for districts less fortunate than FUHSD.

In the grand scheme of things, however, Schmidt isn’t trying to limit the ambitious, high-pressure playing field for the students – be them prospective or full-fledged members – but strives to tilt it in their favor.

“If I can give our kids an additional heads up or little bit of a lift, why shouldn’t I do that?” Schmidt said. “Heavens knows they have enough challenges right now competing with everybody else to get there. Makes sense? Okay.”

Starting next school year, rising juniors will be limited to a choice of three English courses: American Literature, Honors American Literature or American Studies. Rising juniors can no longer take British Literature or Myth, which are now only available to rising seniors.

According to English teacher and department chair David Clarke, it had been a challenge accommodating the diverse range of students, previously consisting of seniors and juniors, in the British Literature and Myth classes.

“You have kids coming in on one end with everything from World Core to American Lit Honors and then on the other end [juniors with]… another year of lit,” Clarke said. ” … It made it very difficult to look at what the [British Literature and Myth courses] were meant to be in terms of goals.”

Junior Megumi Pennebaker is one of the many students who skipped taking an American Literature course to take Mythology. She says that, in class, she can’t see the divide between the students that Clarke mentions.

“I think we’re all on about the same level, and to be honest I don’t really know who’s a junior and who’s a senior,” said Pennebaker. “It’s definitely limiting [the sophomores’]choices.”

As a result of this change, collaboration between teachers may also become more cohesive. Clarke believes that if the teachers are responsible for a more “homogenous group of students” — in other words, all senior students instead of a mix of juniors and seniors — it will be easier for British Literature and Myth teachers to decide how their course will play out in terms of units and class expectations.

“Everybody [will be]teaching the same book in the same order with the same assessment,” he said. “The collaboration just becomes much easier all the way around.”

According to Clarke, the English department has always strived to give students freedom in choosing their classes. Now, however, incoming juniors can only choose between “three flavors” of American Literature, which means students can no longer take both British Literature and Myths classes and “avoid” an American Literature class during the course of their high school career.

“It feels like [American literature] is a collective sort of knowledge that all kids should have,” he said.

He acknowledges that there may be a certain amount of disappointment from the current sophomores, but also believes that within a few years, students won’t even know there was a change even made in course selection.

“American Lit is the course that’s really going to change in some sense,” said Clarke. “Giving that there are [currently]only three courses [of American Literature], I would assume that [that’s the] course that’s really going to expand.”

On whether or not taking American Literature is even significant, Clarke believes an element of cultural literacy is important for students.

“It feels like [American literature] is a collective sort of knowledge that all kids should have,” he said.

Only two heads taller than the mound of pumpkins and peanuts on the table, stall owner Lou Yang wields a threatening knife, swiftly chopping and separating soiled cabbage leaves from the pristine cabbage heads.

Before entering the farmer’s market scene, Yang encountered some troubles with wholesalers.

Lou Yang cuts off wilted cabbage leaves before placing the cabbage heads on the table before her. Photo by Helen Chao

Turned away by the low compensation, Yang decided to give the Bay Area’s farmers markets a try, and she eventually received a certificate from the county certifying her to distribute and sell her vegetables to the public. Yang is involved with three farmer’s market associations, two in California (one of which is the West Coast Farmer’s Market Association), and another known as the Pacific Coast Market Association which operates throughout the San Francisco Bay Area.

While Yang plants forty to fifty varieties of vegetables year-round, some specific types are seasonal. In the winter, Yang sells Napa cabbage, mustard, taro and cilantro, while summer seasons are catered to eggplant.

“At first, I was still young and enjoyed my job, but now I [am]getting old and work too hard I cannot [sell and grow vegetables],” Yang said, “[but]maybe a few more years.”

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